


bonding and explosions

by MourningDew



Category: Undertale
Genre: Anime, Comedy, Cosplay, Fluff, One Shot, Shenanigans, look at these losers, of course, shenaniSANS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-31 08:30:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15115652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MourningDew/pseuds/MourningDew
Summary: Undyne invited Papyrus over to bond with Alphys over, you guessed it, anime. Or, more specifically, cosplay.





	bonding and explosions

**Author's Note:**

> This is @thefloatingstone’s idea (and anon’s), even though I ended up changing plenty of stuff. Enjoy!

It was Undyne’s idea- entirely her fault, in all honesty, that Alphys was halfway into an anxiety attack while buzzing with excitement. 

Undyne had planned for them both, plus Papyrus, to get together and make cosplay, and Alphys had  _ agreed,  _ but the  _ problem,  _ was that she didn’t plan ahead for the awkward silence she and Papyrus would have to suffer through (Undyne wasn’t here yet and there was no way that she could’ve foreseen that, but self consoling herself didn’t change the situation). 

The excitement was steadily melting away into regret the longer they sat there. She loved anime with all her soul and would risk  _ plenty  _ for the sake of it, but even she had her limits (her biggest limits were her social ones).

Alphys was making sure to keep her eyes down and on her phone as she sent frantic messages to Undyne, asking what happened, because if she didn’t show up soon Alphys was going to excuse herself to the trash can. Papyrus was sitting across from her, sitting straight and polite and successfully making her feel rude and gross (she had no doubt it was unintentional, but  _ stars  _ why was he so  _ polite…!?) _ . 

“SO…” 

She jumped and quickly scrambled to turn off her phone. “U-um, yes? Do you- do you, uh, do you need something?”

Papyrus shook his head and offered a polite smile (it didn’t make her feel better at all). “I WAS SIMPLY GOING TO MENTION THAT YOU LOOK LOVELY TODAY! WHERE DID YOU HAPPEN TO FIND THOSE CLOTHES?”

...She was wearing her lab coat, still (she would’ve changed, but Papyrus showed up  _ early. _ She never got the chance). “U-um… Asgore…? This- this is just… my uniform. The- the, uh… for… professionalism and a-all that. I can… probably… make you one… if you want…?”

“WOWIE! THANK YOU!”

“W-welcome…”

And just like that, the conversation was over. She had a feeling this was going to be torture (it already  _ was _ ). 

She caught herself awkwardly staring at a random wall and quickly lowered her gaze back to her phone; she was relieved for half a second when she saw a text from Undyne, but her heart sank when she realized it said Undyne was “stuck and gonna be late thanks to some dumb traffic jam. Construction was only making things worse.”

Alphys tried to keep the cringe off her face.

“...HOW HAS YOUR DAY BEEN…?”

“N-nice… yours…?”   
“FABULOUS!” 

“Great…”

Alphys rubbed nervously at the side of her phone and took a deep breath. She didn’t think she could survive another estimated thirty minutes of this. It just wasn’t happening. 

Just when she was starting to get nervous enough to make an escape for the trash can, Papyrus spoke up again. “DO YOU HAVE MUCH EXPERIENCE IN CREATING… ‘COSPLAY?’”

No… yeah. Duh. Of  _ course  _ she did. Alphys had plenty of outfits already made stowed away in her closet of shameful self indulgence. “...A l-little bit…? I-if you need help or- or something I’d be happy to…? Lend you? a hand?”

“WELL… THAT WOULD BE APPRECIATED. I HAVEN’T EVER MADE ANYTHING LIKE THIS BEFORE! I’VE ONLY MADE HALLOWEEN COSTUMES.” 

“...W-wait. You’ve- you’ve only ever made halloween costumes? You’ve never wanted to- to wear the things people wear in animes?  _ Ever?”  _ In any other situation she would’ve wondered if Papyrus just didn’t like anime, but he showed up to a  _ cosplay making  _ get together. If he didn’t like anime… why was he even here? 

“I’M AFRAID NOT. IS-”

“ _ Oh man. _ S-seriously? Have you just never had the- the materials? Or were you just busy? You can borrow plenty of stuff- I’ve got all sorts of things you can use! Oh- duh,  _ that’s _ why you showed up. There’s-” 

“ _ ACTUALLY… _ ” Papyrus cut in; there was a strange look on his face, “I ONLY CAME BECAUSE UNDYNE INVITED ME AND IT’S GOOD TO SPEND TIME WITH FRIENDS! ...I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COSPLAY AND HALLOWEEN COSTUMES ARE. WHAT ARE WE MAKING?”

Alphys was going to lose her mind. “...Okay… okay, okay. So… w-what… alright. Pick an anime.” 

“ERM… THE ONE WITH THE SWORDS?”

“...That narrows it down to… all of them…?”

Papyrus shifted in his seat. “I MUST CONFESS… I’VE NEVER REALLY ENJOYED ANIME THAT MUCH.”  _ No…!  _ “PERHAPS I’VE JUDGED TOO QUICKLY, BUT IT ALL SEEMS… RATHER STRANGE.” 

“I-it’s not strange, it’s just…! ...It’s super cool! There’s always these crazy fight s-scenes and… and…!” She swallowed thickly and took a deep breath; Papyrus expressing that he didn’t like something she  _ loved  _ was  _ seriously  _ off putting. A “social turn off” Undyne would say. “H-here! Why don’t I show you one? It’s super good! I’m s-sure you’ll like it.” She couldn’t let him just go off believing that anime was weird! That  _ wasn’t true! _   
“OH! OKAY THEN.” 

After another awkward second, they both stood and went to the living room. Alphys quickly went about putting in Mew Mew Kissy Cutie (of course) and starting it up. She was sweating bullets and trying not to be too obvious in watching Papyrus out of the corner of her eye. 

They were maybe five minutes in when he said that it doesn’t sound  _ at all  _ like what Undyne always ranted about. “Where were the swords? Where’s the cool armor?” She told him it was only the first episode, but he still seemed upset. 

A bit later, she finally changed the anime they’d been watching to something she herself hadn’t loved that much, but… it seemed like what Papyrus was looking for. Its main focus was the action (Alphys enjoyed action just as much as the next monster, but she went for the romance and drama more. Who knows why) and there was plenty of it even from just episode one. 

Papyrus seemed  _ much  _ more invested now, leaning toward the screen from the very first glimpse of the giant suits of armor. He seemed excited…! (though she later recognized that it was more about the armor than what was actually  _ happening…  _ It would have to do for now).

“CAN WE MAKE STUFF LIKE THIS? COULD I  _ WEAR  _ STUFF LIKE THIS?” He struck a pose. “THE GREAT PAPYRUS, DONNED IN ONLY THE MOST MAGNIFICENT OF METALS!” He didn’t move, but looked at her from where he stood. 

Alphys’s mouth quirked up into a smile and slowly widened. “Yeah! You can make  _ all sorts of things!”  _

“WOWIE!” Papyrus finally dropped the pose. “EVEN GIANT ROBOTS WITH FLAMING SWORDS?” 

Alphys finally genuinely smiled, but then paused to think through their materials. “...M-maybe not a  _ giant  _ robot, but we could  _ totally  _ make a cool suit of a-armor or like- like something similar!” 

“WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?”   
“U-undyne…?” 

“OH, RIGHT.”

“We can probably start early. I’m sure she won’t mind…?”

“YEAH! LET’S MAKE COSPLAY!” 

“Y-yeah!”

\--

Undyne arrived fifteen minutes later in a flurry of motion, screaming about how Alphys suddenly stopped responding to her texts. After apologizing for getting distracted, Alphys caught her up on what happened (Undyne grinned when she heard about Papyrus’s reaction to the anime and said “I KNEW he’d like it!”). 

After that, they got much more focused, with Alphys asking for parts and Undyne hauling machinery while Papyrus helped with the mechanics (she hadn’t expected him to know anything about building and switches; it ended up making a lot of sense after hearing about how he built traps in Snowdin all the time. ...And now in his own home). 

With their enthusiasm combined, they almost had the costume done (aside from the fully functioning flaming sword and battle mechanics) by sundown. Papyrus was first to go, stating that it was almost his bedtime and he had to get home. Undyne and Alphys had planned to keep going without him, but it wasn’t the same without him, so they ended up stopping (even if she hated how loud he was, the clever “Nyeh heh heh!” always drew a reluctant smile from her).

The next day, they couldn’t manage another get together; Alphys had work, Undyne had to meet with her swol friends, and Papyrus… had no plans. He spent the day with his brother. 

The next time they finally were able to meet was a week later, but their excitement was bound to be ruined. Sans had caught scent of their plans and pointed out how likely disaster was- especially with  _ Papyrus  _ piloting the ‘costume’ (more like machine of war and terror). 

Alphys reluctantly agreed, but only after fifteen minutes of ranting and disappointment. Undyne never agreed in the end, but she couldn’t work on it alone. Papyrus was just as disappointed, if not more, but still understood that blowing a hole through the moon was a bad idea. 

The compromise was that the weapons would be fake, but it just… wasn’t the same. Still, they all met halfway and made the weapons fake (Undyne complained every step of the way and Papyrus was much less enthusiastic; Alphys was more or less indifferent, seeing as all she  _ really  _ wanted was cosplay that looked cool. She could bring anime to life another day).

It was certainly an  _ adventure…  _ ending, thankfully, in peace, with the moon left intact. 

...That would last until Undyne discovered the wrestling championships. 

**Author's Note:**

> I bet you that Undyne found out about wrestling thanks to Sans showing her a terrible, terrible John Cena meme


End file.
